Cherry Blossom Fever

The cherry blossoms are finally out and the whole country is going nuts. The Japanese literally go crazy over cherry blossoms. They’re on the news every night and the whole country turns out to see them. But after taking a hundred pictures of cherry trees in bloom yesterday, I don’t think I can continue to make fun of the Japanese. I mean, I will but it’s probably no longer fair. I totally understand the mindset behind cherry blossom fever.

I moved on April 1st but it already feels like I’ve been here for a month. The awkward period when I first move into a house keeps decreasing. With Watanabe-san I felt very awkward and out of place for about two weeks. It took that long for me to feel like I lived there. It was only a few days with Ibaraki-san and even less time here. A lot of that is due to my language skills I think. It’s clear that my Japanese, at least conversationally, is very close to fluent. Given enough time I can get almost any point across even if I don’t know all the words. It really helps when meeting new people if you can speak their language.

So I moved on Wednesday and got settled in here. Nemoto-san from CIEE came to help me with the move. I’m very glad it was him and not the three headed dog that guards the river Styx known here as Ito-san. I haven’t seen that beast in six months now and wouldn’t have it any other way. Just as an update there are three survivors left on the island. Alina went home. But Nemoto-san isn’t evil he just works for a bad company and tries hard at his job. I like him even though sometimes he’s really annoying. We met in the morning at the train station. The Ibarakis were sad to see me go. There were a few tears from the mom but then she confessed to feeling silly because I was moving 10 minutes away. I liked my time at the Ibarakis’ house but I definitely feel like it was a good time to move on. I’ve kind of outlived my usefulness there. I don’t think there’s anything left for them to teach me and I’m ready to start meeting billions of new people, which always happens when I move.

From the train station Nemoto-san and I traveled to Toride station. I’m pretty much a pro at moving now and was much better prepared this time. Last time I moved I didn’t know what I was doing and just threw everything in bags. This time I carefully threw everything in bags. I also sent a huge box home that weighed 300 grams over the 20-kilogram limit. I didn’t know there was a limit for sending packages home. Now I know. We call this learning in context. Thanks Vankrey.

I met my new host mother and she drove us back to the house where we had tea and snacks. Like all new host mothers they automatically assume that I must be starving and shove food down my throat. This is not necessarily a bad thing. I don’t quite get why representatives from CIEE and Sakushi (the organization that finds host families. I recently learned that CIEE doesn’t even find families; they pay another company to do it for them. This leads to some interesting questions like, why in world am I giving money to CIEE if they don’t even do they’re own job) insist on being present. They weren’t there when I met my first family which was definitely the most awkward time and when I needed the most help. But they were there and we did the round of introductions and business cards were exchanged and everyone bowed at least a dozen times. As soon as everyone left me, my new host mother, and my host sister Megumi went to change my address on my alien registration and then for a walk around the neighborhood.

I like my new family. They are all very nice people and don’t seem crazy at all. My new host mother is obviously very excited to have me in her home. I think she’s very worried about how I view her family and wants me to have a good time while I’m here. So far she’s bent over backwards to accommodate me and give me stuff to do. She does, however, have an ulterior motive for hosting me. I couldn’t count the number of times she’s asked me to speak only English to her daughter on both hands, even if I was counting in binary (up to 1023 on two hands). I just nod politely and quietly ignore her. There’s no way I’m speaking in English. First of all, Megumi is nowhere near excited about it and kept telling her mom to shut up while she was talking. Plus, I’m here to learn Japanese not teach English. At some point I think I’ll have to explain that to Uehara-san but for now I’d rather not get in a scuffle or burst her bubble.

Finally I met my new host father. It being a Wednesday he has work. He’s a pretty chill guy. His introduction went something like, “hello, nice to meet you. I’m going to take a bath now and get in my pajamas because I really like pajamas. You’ll see me in pajamas quite often and feel free to wear them around the house.” Then he disappeared and true to his word when he came back he was decked out in comfortable-looking flannel pjs. He didn’t seem overly concerned that a new American had showed up on his doorstep. Not like my host mother who’s still really excited about having me.

The moral of the story is I like my new family, house, neighborhood, and the like. As always when I changed families this new family assumed that there’s no way I know how to spend time by myself and the past few days have been busy busy. It was like that with my first and second families. Remember the Ibarakis has me in a Santa costume not half an hour after meeting them. This wasn’t quite so sudden. Thursday I went to track practice, or tried to at least. I got there and was told that it was a free day. So I went home and then went back for basketball. But when I got there for basketball Kaname called me and said there was no b-ball after all. These kids are awful at making plans. Not like I help. I do just leach off of everyone else’s plans but still.

Friday I had school in the morning. There was a ceremony for retiring teachers. It was probably the most boring ceremony I’ve been to so far and I’ve been to a lot of boring ceremonies. I don’t usually fall asleep during ceremonies at school. It’s not that I don’t try; I try my best to pass the time with my eyes closed but sitting cross-legged on a cold gym floor is not a comfortable way to pass the time. I’m sick of sitting cross-legged for ceremonies and assemblies at school. I know it’s the Japanese way but please just someone get me a chair. A dozen teachers, including the principal and VP, were retiring and everyone had something to say. The best, or at least most interesting, part was when one teacher whipped out a tuba and started playing. I looked around like, “come on, no one else thinks this is weird?” Apparently not. It was good tuba work I have to say. I didn’t know that instrument could sound so sad. But then it was back to speeches and I dozed off again.

I did find out my class assignment, which thrilled me about as much as watching paint dry. Whippee. I’m in a class with lots of Japanese kids. I guess I was excited when I found out that I’m not in the same class as, I forgot his name. The one that busted my left eardrum with his dog-whistle laugh. Glad to be away from him. I am in class with one of my track teammates. That’s nice. I talked to Ishy and it’s set that I’m helping out in his class twice a week. That’s about the only thing in school I’m looking forward to. That and computer class. I had so much fun this spring break that I don’t see the point in school. I’ve learned a lot more talking to people over break than I have in school. The kids there still pretty much ignore me. It’s hard to keep trying to break into conversation. Even now when I understand the Japanese, we have very little in common. So, not looking forward to going back to school but I only have 2½ months left so I’ll use the time to work on reading/writing. I haven’t progressed in those areas as much as I would like.

This weekend was my last weekend before school starts and moving families made it a great one. I spent yesterday in Tokyo with Megumi (host sister), Harumi-san (Uehara-san’s friend), Maika (Harumi’s daughter), and some other lady I don't know. It was a crowd of women I don’t know. I thought that Maika and Megumi were friends before this but apparently it was the first time hanging out for them too.

The reason for the outing was to see Gagaku at a temple in the heart of Tokyo (Tokyo’s heart is about the size of Montana). Gagaku is a very ancient form of music and dance. I guess everyone moved very slowly 1500 years ago because Gagaku is really slow. This is what I like about Japan though; there are people who practice arts that are 1500 years old. That’s a really long time ago, about the time that Japan was united as a country and the monarchy established. 50 A.D. is Roman times, or close to the end of Roman times. This is a tradition that has been preserved in temples and handed down one generation at a time for fifteen centuries. Even though the dance itself was not all that enthralling, thinking about the time behind it kept me interested. The temple was surrounded by gorgeous cherry blossom trees (桜) that made the whole scene unreal. There’s nothing quite like a courtyard full of cherry trees. Washington D.C. has cherry blossoms but even there it’s only a few rows (I think. I haven’t researched this). I doubt it compares to Tokyo where the trees are everywhere and the whole city seems to have gone pink. We watched gagaku, ate lunch and looked at trees. Inside the temple were other performers singing old chant-like songs. About half the people there were wearing kimonos and the monks looked so cool that it made me want to be a Buddhist monk. I had to settle for taking my picture with one.

I really liked the temple and gardens. We saw an old graveyard that held the ashes of various members of the Tokugawa family. For those of you rusty on Japanese history, Tokugawa was the family that brought Japan under unified control for the first time in a millennia around 1600. They then held control and turned Japan from a violent, divided, warring nation into an incredibly peaceful and stable one. That era, called the Edo period after the capital Edo (modern day Tokyo) ended in 1868 after a foreigner forced the Japanese to open their ports at gunpoint. That foreigner was an American of course, Commodore Perry. So it was cool to see Tokugawa graves. That’s the kind of touristy thing I like to do. I like visiting temples and shrines and old cultural icons. But it’s no fun on my own and when I hang out with friends in Tokyo I usually hang out with Marianne. Marianne is fun but you sign up for a very specific kind of experience with her and that does not include temples. Tiny art galleries and fashion stores in Harajuku is more of what Marianne is about. So getting to indulge in old stuff was fun. And it was fun because I wasn’t alone. A major advantage of being in a house with a high school student is that I get to hang out with high school kids. At the Watanabe’s I met a lot of elementary schoolers. At Ibaraki-san’s I met a lot of babies. Here I’ve already met several kids who are much closer to my age.

After the temple we walked a few short blocks to Tokyo Tower. Tokyo Tower was one of the few major tourist attractions I hadn’t seen yet and it was worth it. It’s a complete gimmick but definitely worth it. There was a line a mile long outside for the elevators so we just climbed the stairs instead. It’s less than 1000 steps. No problem. The best part of the observation deck I thought were the signs that pointed various to places. Like: Disneyland – 12km or Ueno Park – 4km. Reference points are good to have when the city is so big. Being up there, it’s unreal how big Tokyo is. After Tokyo Tower we walked to Roppongi for dinner. Maika and her mom shopped a bit but Megumi and I had no interest in shopping so we listened to a free concert outdoors. I didn’t know the person but she was pretty good. Then we had dinner at a sushi bar. The sushi is really good here, and went home. A full day.

Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest but it was not to be. I want to finish this post so I can go to bed so I’ll keep today short. Today I went with Megumi to kung fu practice and I learned never to piss her off. That punch looks deadly. I really liked kung fu because there was punching and kicking and stuff. Aikido was interesting and one of the things I liked about it was that there was so little of that stuff, but seeing something different and new is always interesting. So I’m dabbling in the martial arts. Kung fu is a lot more tiring. I didn’t know how much of a workout punching the air is. When it came time to pair up and practice moves I was way out of my league. Sensei put me with Megumi and her friend and I was not a happy camper. It’s hard to do kung fu when your partners just talk the whole time. That left me standing there awkwardly in my dogi while they giggled like high school girls. It’s lucky I had a dogi from Aikido or else I would’ve been stuck wearing my host mother’s. I doubt it would fit.

After sweating up a storm doing kung fu we had lunch out on the grass under the cherry trees. Quite beautiful. Then home to change and back out with my host mother to play badminton with Maika while Megumi was at an actor’s workshop. I predict Maika and I will be good friends. I creamed them in badminton for the first three rounds and then got pummeled the last three. You can’t win them all. Afterwards, home so I could type this post. Tomorrow I have school, some sort of entrance ceremony. I’m oh so excited to sit on the floor of the gym for 90 minutes. Can’t wait.